DEL MAR, Calif. - Dan Hendricks was sitting at the rail on the Del Mar clubhouse turn, supervising a couple of late gallopers and grabbing his cell phone whenever the opening strains of "Carry On Wayward Son" sounded on his ring tone. Ah, Kansas.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The record books will show that no single owner won more than two races on either Belmont Day June 10 or Travers Day last Saturday, but in fact it was a single dynastic racing family that accounted for eight races, five stakes, and two classics on New York's two biggest days of racing so far this year: the Maktoums, whose dominance of European racing has come to full flower in the United States this year.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Jimmy Bell, the son of legendary Kentucky breeder John A. Bell, was sitting in his car outside the home of Bill and Barbara Thomason in the Chevy Chase section of Lexington, Ky., wondering what more he could have said to friends who had just lost their daughter in the fiery wreckage of Comair Flight 5191.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Given all the variables, all the subtle attacks on soundness, all the reasons that things can and do go wrong, one of the best things that can be said of any Thoroughbred racehorse is that he is consistent.

This is not to be confused with the human interpretation of the word, which can be bent to mean dull, plodding, or downright stubborn. "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative," wrote Oscar Wilde, who never lacked for imagination.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Like it or not, and sooner than you might have thought, American racing is about to undergo a fundamental revolution with the advent of synthetic racing surfaces.

DEL MAR, Calif. - The revelation earlier this week by California Horse Racing Board chairman Richard Shapiro that neither Pacific Classic winner Lava Man nor any of his seven beaten opponents last Sunday registered illegally high blood bicarbonate levels could be viewed as one of those "so what" stories that deserves little more than a nod in passing.

DEL MAR, Calif. - It has come to this. A trainer pops off in the heat of a tough loss, accuses an opponent of cheating - and, by extension, the officials for letting him cheat - and the holy wrath of the league officials comes crashing down on his head.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The grim prospect of a $6.20 exacta hangs over the 137th Travers Stakes like a looming visit to the dentist, unappealing but probably unavoidable. Bernardini is 3-5 to win it and Bluegrass Cat is about the same price to beat the rest, which would complete a personal trifecta of second-place finishes to this year's classic winners.

DEL MAR, Calif. - It takes a brave soul right now to run a mile on the turf against West Coast hotshot Aragorn. An Irish son of Giant's Causeway, trained by Neil Drysdale, Aragorn has been on his "A" game all year long, and comes into the Del Mar Breeders' Cup Mile this Saturday off wins in the Shoemaker Mile at Hollywood and the nine-furlong Eddie Read Handicap at Del

DEL MAR, Calif. - A horseplayer who visits major tracks across the country will find the game to be fairly homogeneous. The handicapping process is pretty much the same in New York, Florida, Kentucky, or Illinois. But Thoroughbred racing in California remains unique.

While spending the last three weeks at Del Mar, I felt I was watching a version of the sport I have never seen anywhere else. Some of California's distinguishing qualities make the game exciting, and some make it distasteful.